Housed on the West Loop Harpo Studios campus in offices previously used for "The Rosie O'Donnell Show," 120 Sports is slated to kick off eight hours of live programming from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. each day.

To start, it's one continuous sports talk and highlight show, with top anchors Michael Kim and Dave Ross alternating for two hours each and joined by a rotating cast of analysts, reporters and other personalities.

Game highlights, live game look-ins and the day's trending sports topics will be discussed, all in two-minute chunks designed to be easily consumed by fans.

The goal is simple: become the ultimate sports-watching companion by combining social media, commentary and highlights into a single online source.

“The idea is, this is your sports source 24 hours a day,” said Matt Carstens, executive vice president of 120 Sports and the man who helped launch Silver Chalice's CampusInsiders.com and the ACC Digital Network.

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THE PRODUCT

The 120 Sports app displayed on an iPad.

The site will offer 120 to 150 two-minute video segments per day.

Other viewing options at 120sports.com or on the network's mobile app include “catch-up” mode — the default during non-live show hours featuring the top stories of the day — as well as a trending page with the most-watched videos, a search option and a site viewers can personalize with news on their favorite teams, players, topics and personalities.

The shows will cover all sports, not just those of its equity partners, though it has digital rights to in-game footage only of the partner leagues and postgame video from the NBA.

Reporters pop into the live show conversation with breaking news and every half-hour to help introduce the latest trending topics into the discussion.

“We want to be the nation's water cooler,” said Andre Mika, 120 Sports senior vice president of production and programming, who previously redesigned and built digital platforms for the NHL. “If it's being talked about, we want to host the conversation in a smart way.”

The digital network, much like Silver Chalice's CampusInsiders.com college sports network, offers unauthenticated video content, meaning you can watch it without having to prove you're a cable subscriber.

That's different from the "TV everywhere" concept that most major broadcasting networks are using to allow viewers to watch their programming on mobile devices, but only if they sign in with a cable account password.

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THE STUDIO

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The 120 Sports studio is carefully crafted to mimic a “high-end man cave,” with a bar area, game room, media wall and locker room backdrop — no desks.

“Everything has a purpose in there,” Mr. Carstens said. “It's visually appealing, very designed and laid out. It's meant to foster the conversation and the engagement with the audience.”

Suits and ties are not allowed, Mr. Carstens said, and analysts — including local TV sports analyst Tim Doyle and former NFL cornerback Bryant McFadden — are implored to dress down to make viewers “feel like (they) want to hang out here, (they) want to be involved in this conversation.”

That conversation is at the heart of what 120 Sports is trying to pull off.

Its show structure is designed to pull in fan commentary from social media and adjust an “evolving, morphing rundown” of topics. One control room, for example, features a team of people carefully scanning social media to determine new stories as they emerge in real time, which they relay to show producers to insert into the live conversation.

While that is just one cog of a massive production undertaking, with 130 full-time employees and counting at the network, it's key to making fans want the site as their side dish to watching games.

“We want the audience to feel a sense of spontaneity and unpredictability,” said 120 Sports President Jason Coyle, who plans to add live morning content to the network soon after the launch and has “eyes to program the day” with live video, too

THE ADS

While its league partners hope the network prompts fans to watch more of their games on TV or online, advertising is 120 Sports' primary revenue source.

Each hour of programming on 120 Sports features six minutes of commercial time — less than half of the traditional 14 to 16 minutes of TV commercials per hour — and will be delivered in one-minute breaks.

The network has four sponsor partners in Verizon Wireless, Geico, Nissan and Transamerica, which will appear during commercial breaks and during video pre-rolls designed to play every few videos viewed.

“And no brand can buy a specific sport — you're buying across the network,” Mr. Coyle said, noting that the network could add a fifth category sponsor soon.

Silver Chalice and Sports Illustrated sell those spots independent of the league partners, selling brands on the benefits of aligning with a growing trend in consumers breaking from cable TV.

120 Sports declined to provide specifics about its finances.

The number of cable TV subscribers at major providers has steadily fallen for the past five years, down by about 10 percent since the beginning of 2010 to about 40 million households, according to New York-based equity research firm ISI Group Inc.

Many of those former subscribers are opting for the video they can consume online at their convenience — think outlets like YouTube, Hulu and streaming video service Netflix.

“It seemed like a great opportunity for a company like ours that's invested a lot in terms of digital engagement,” Transamerica Senior Vice President of Marketing Bill Tate said in an interview with Crain's sister publication Advertising Age. “It requires us to think digital first.”

3 p.m. update:

120 Sports today announced that the PGA Tour has also signed on as an equity partner in the network.

"We are thrilled to join forces with 120 Sports and their full team of equity partners as we strive to provide our fans with the always-on, digital content they want and need," said Rick Anderson, executive vice president of global media for PGA Tour.